At their meeting in Paris in February, Cameron and French president Sarkozy agreed to escalate their military co-operation, including by building unmanned drones that could be launched in 2020. During the air assault on Libya they had to rely on US drones.
France and Britain together already make up half of NATO’s defence spending. Now both governments want to increase their capabilities. They also urged the Syrian opposition to unite, and called on other countries to do more to support the rebels against President Bashar al-Assad. They want to sabotage Assad’s plans to hold a referendum and a multi-party parliamentary election within four months.
Support of the jihadist opposition could provoke a large-scale civil war, which will lead to even more NATO demands for intervention. Their current interference in Syria (see feature article) by special forces and provision of communications equipment, was not mentioned. ■